Campaign Launch Recap and Building Momentum for 2015

Pivotal Moments: Our Campaign for Wayne State University is officially launched!

The campaign, which was made public Oct. 9 with the announcement of a university-wide $750 million goal, will conclude in 2018 with the celebration of the university’s sesquicentennial anniversary.

The School of Medicine is responsible for raising $190 million toward the university’s overall goal. Pivotal Moments is the second and most significant university-wide comprehensive campaign in our history. The campaign will support the immediate needs of students, faculty and the research enterprise in addition to securing permanent endowment funding for future pivotal moments. This will further the university’s collective vision of becoming the nation’s preeminent public urban research university. Click here to learn more about the university’s campaign priorities.

The School of Medicine’s afternoon luncheon and showcase, held Oct. 9 as part of the launch festivities, hosted 100 guests, making it one of the best-attended launch events across campus. The day featured testimonials from students and faculty about the impact of philanthropy as well as a research poster presentation highlighting the leading-edge, community-minded research performed here. Since the public launch, the words that continue to resonate at the school were those of Jonathan Wong, Class of 2015, who said: “I came here for medical training, but I got a whole lot more. All of our community partners taught me that when good people come together, there is no disparity that can’t be brought down. What Wayne does so well is investing in students, and building them up to be great leaders, and none of that is possible without your support.” This is just one reminder that Pivotal Moments is about more than raising funds; it celebrates the life-changing moments that have happened at the Wayne State University School of Medicine and will help us to create new ones for our students, our university, our city and world. Click here to view photos from the luncheon and showcase at the School of Medicine.

At the campaign launch event hosted at the Hilberry Theatre, the university was surprised with a $25 million gift from College of Engineering alumnus James A. Anderson, who is establishing an innovation center at the college to encourage entrepreneurship. The School of Medicine and the College of Engineering have increasingly become partners in developing new technologies and equipment to improve patient care. This gift highlights the major investment required to improve the educational environment and that these investments university-wide can have a positive impact on the School of Medicine and the people who our graduates will care for in their practices. A recap of all these festivities can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/N0vLFQo3tDg.

Since launching the campaign in Detroit, the university has embarked on a national tour to share the campaign priorities with alumni across the country. On Oct. 21 the university hosted alumni for an event at the Drake Hotel in Chicago and on Oct. 30 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York. Both events had more than 60 university alumni and friends in attendance, many from the School of Medicine, anxious to learn about the great things taking place at the university.

In 2015, the university will host several more of these events across the country to include more of our alums in the excitement that the campaign has generated. President M. Roy Wilson, along with representatives from the School of Medicine and other WSU schools and colleges, will be in Boca Raton and Bonita Springs, Fla., in February. If you are interested in attending these events, please RSVP through the links provided.